The End

Our summary of the last 2 months:

Favourite place:

Jess - Broome

Tilly - Cable Becah and El Questro Station

Bill- Lake Argyle and Mundrabilla Station

Emmy - Darwin, Broome and 80 mile beach

Adelaide - 80 Mile Beach, Broome, Darwin

Danny - Lake Argyle

Caro - Manning Gorge

Worst place:

Jess - Windham

Tilly - FitzroyCrossing

Bill -  the side of the Road, near Port Augusta

Emmy - Manning Gorge and Broome Markets

Adelaide - everything besides the infinity pool and the jumping pillow

Danny - Zebra Rock

Caro - Adcock Gorge

Favourite thing:

Jess - Riding camels at Ayers Rock

Tilly - looking at pearls

Bill - riding around Mundbarilla Station on Bens motorbike, and catching my first fish at Bells Gorge.

Emmy - surfing at cable beach, and the horse races in Broome

Adelaide - doing the splits on the lake Argyle dance floor and getting a free cd.

Danny - all of it, especially Donk not breaking down.

Caro - happy kids ..... And the crab races in Broome

Worst thing:

Jess - driving

Tilly - the lady at the Broome Markets

Bill - when I accidentally squirted the boy when I turned on the water park at Darwin

Emmy - driving

Adelaide - "when Bill drops his guts in the car" ( Ads has been spending too much time with Danny)

Danny - Adelaide not giving the foot rub she owes

Caro - loosing Emmy at Manning Gorge

Something you have learnt:

Jess - an anenome is an animal

Tilly - that whale sharks are the biggest fish in the world

Bill- some Pelicans can hold 13 litres of water in their mouth

Emmy - how pearls are made

Adelaide - if Nemo goes under the anenome, the anenome can sting Nemo

Danny - green tree snakes are harmless........apparently

Caro - if you have more liquid in the " unflushed" section, compared to the " flushed " section, there is a high chance that your toilet will tip over while you are travelling.

Something else you have learnt:

Jess - you have one in one hundred thousand chance of finding a natural pearl

Tilly - the reason Cable beach is called Cable Beach is because of the underwater cable that connects Australia to the rest of the world

Bill - Eels can dig a burrow with their tail

Emmy - what noise a camel makes when he stands up and how they stand up

Adelaide - that "camamels" have to put the heaviest person on the back and the lightest person on the front.

Danny - my family are growing up and people on the road and on properties seem to share the same opinions as me on all subjects.

Caro - there are 10 books in every 20,000 kms  ( That's Danny's suggestion on my behalf) ... and the nucleus of the pearl is implanted in the gonad of the male oyster, the oyster then secretes a fluid that forms the pearl, so what exactly are pearls are actually made of????.....   I didn't ask any more questions!!

Favourite lookout:

Jess - Joffre's lookout at Karajini

Tilly - circular gorge, Karajini

Bill - head of the bight

Emmy - Freemantle Ferris wheel, and Ayers Rock viewing platform, junction lookout at Karijini

Adelaide - Freemantle Ferris Wheel

Danny - hammersely lookout , Karajini.

Caro - lookout no 4 on the great Australian Bight

Favourite gorge:

Jess - Manning Gorge, Kimberley and Tunnel creek, Kimberley

Tilly - Bells Gorge, Kimberley 

Bill - hammersely gorge, Karajini and Windjana gorge, Kimberley

Emmy - the Olga's- favourite walk - valley of the winds

Adelaide - Waeno Gorge - Karajini

Danny - Manning and Emma ( el Questro)

Caro - Handcock Gorge, Karajini and Manning Gorge , Kimberley, and Kings Canyon and Palm Valley, West McDonald Ranges.

Favourite souvenir:

Jess - dolphin stuffed toy from Monkey Mia

Tilly - opal pearl from Denham

Bill - yellow signs and number plates from everywhere

Emmy - pearl luck dips and jewellery from Broome

Adelaide - Viviane ( her toy mermaid from Denham ) and earmuffs from Nullabour roadhouse

Danny - barramundi contracting shirt form Bug and Jen

Caro - the pearl we opened and Danny subtly, but assertively bought.

Favourite thing to do in the car:

Jess - chew chewy 

Tilly - read

Bill - looking out the window

Emmy - sleeping and dreaming about Roseville

Adelaide - sleeping

Danny - drive smoothly so my wife doesn't loose where she is up to in her book

Caro - read

Favourite Animal from this trip ( the kids wanted this category!! )

Jess - turtle

Tilly - starfish

Bill - water buffalo and Brahmans

Emmy - brumby's and Dolphins and whales

Adelaide - kangaroo

Danny - camel

Caro - that olive Python on the Gibb river rod - not my favourite, but one of the most different - it was huge and slow.

First thing you will do when we get home:

Jess - rearrange my bedroom wall

Tilly - sprint to my room and sleep in my bed

Bill - put my souvenirs on my wall and ride Little

Emmy - pat Chuck and feed him and say hi to all my friends, ride my ripstick and hug my bedroom and my house.

Danny - check the stock, then plan a trip to find Lasseters lost reef

Caro - shower

Favourite photo:

Jess- at Cable Beach , Broome.

 

Tilly -  finishing the longest straight stretch on the Nullabour

 

Dad getting creative on 80 Mile Beach

 

Bill - with Ben at Mundrabilla Station

 

Catching his second fish at Bell Gorge, King Leopold ranges, Kimberley.

 

Emmy -  surfing at Cable Beach

 

With the Blanchards at Broome

 Adelaide - just crossed the Pentecost River ( don't think she understood the concept of favourite photo )

 

 with Chelsea at her Dads work in Broome.

 

Danny - the Pinnacles

 

Caro - camping at Manning Gorge

 

Bells Gorge.

 

Day 51 near Port Augusta to Roseville By Tilly

This morning we got up, got in the car and drove to a petrol station. At the petrol station, we got some sausage rolls for breaky.

Then we got back in the car and now we are driving again.

We just stopped at Burra and had a look at the Bullrush shop. I bought a hair clip and Emily got a shirt.

Now we are driving again.

We just stopped at Mildura to get some lunch. For lunch we had McDonalds. Then we drove to the petrol station and got some petrol.

Now we are driving again.

Everything was quite, until Adelaide yells out, "Oh Dad, Bill just dropped his guts."

We just stopped at our last petrol station for the trip. We fuelled up, then got back in the car. Now we are driving back home to Roseville.

We just finished our last family blog together.

It is getting dark now, and Dad can hear a rattling in the car. He said he hopes it's just something on the windscreen, that's about to fly off.

Siri has taken us onto a road, which isn't the way we came. We came from Burrumbuttock, but this road is taking us to Walbundurie, but Walbundurie wasn't spelt right, so we don't really know where we are going.

At the moment we are watching the moon rise, and Emily is trying to find the flag the American's put on it.

Now we have made it to Oaklands.

We just stopped at another petrol station at Deniliquin and got some petrol. Now we are driving again.

We are getting excited because we are near Rand and Dad is aching. 

Now we are driving through our driveway and I was the first one in Roseville. We were all happy we are home, but Dad said he already misses the trip.

 We are all surprised that Donk made it home. Now we are in our old beds, about to go to sleep. By the way there is still one more blog called the end, if you want to see it.

Day 50 Mundrabilla Station to near Port Augusta By Jess

Day 50

This morning I got woken up by dad at Mundrabilla. We woke up early because we were going to watch Ben do school of the air. We got to talk to his teacher and we got to see his school room. This is a photo of what it looked like.

 

We are now saying goodbye and are back on the Nullarbor.

 We are going past a lot of lookouts that are looking out over the ocean. We stopped at a lookout that shows you the view of the ocean from above the cliff. It was very windy. Bill lost his hat and started running after it. He was very close to the end of the cliff and Dad told him to come back. Dad then went and got his hat. This is a photo of what it looked like.

 

We are now back in the car. It is extremely windy. We drive some more and then we saw another bit of ocean. This is a photo of what it looked like. 

 

We are now driving. We just stopped at the Nullabour petrol station. It was really windy. The wind could hold us up.

 

 We drove for about half an hour and then stopped at the head of the bight. This was a whale watching place. We walked down onto the board walk and looked for whales. We saw a lot of whales and a seal. This is a picture of a whale with its tail up in the air.

We are now driving and the wind keeps on pushing the float from side to side. We drove till about midnight and then stopped on the side of the road near Port Augusta. Today we drove for 13 hours.

By Jess😄

Day 49 - Norseman to Mundrabilla Station By Caroline

This morning we did a quick lap through Norseman and learnt that the town was named after a horse called Norseman who scratched the ground and discovered gold.  Bill decided to have a quick ride, even though it left him with a wet bum.  Adelaide chose to stay in the car.

 

We then started the drive East, and took a few driving photos.

 

 

We drove along the longest straight stretch in Australia between Balladonia and Caiguna (146.6 k's)  and we crossed our first time zone on the way home. This was a bit weird, because we didn't cross this time zone in the North. We are now in Central West Time. ( 45 minutes earlier than the west coast.) We took this photo and all the travellers are so happy to finish this straight stretch of road that they all tooted and honked and cheered us as they went past.

 

At about 4 ish we arrived at Mundrabilla Station where Meggan Carswell ( an old music / Campfires friend of Danny's ) is the governess.   She has organised for us to stay here for the night.

We met Bree and Col Campbell, and their kids Duncan ( yr 11) Soph ( yr 9) and Ben ( yr 2). Bill and Ben spent the afternoon riding motorbikes, checking the Bulls, watching cowboy movies and playing the Wii. Everyone else enjoyed the music around a fire. Duncan and Soph also play the guitar.

 

 

 

 

 

Mundrabilla is a million acre property on them western side of the Nullabour, that fronts the ocean for 30k's, and goes about 100k's from North to South. They grow cattle here. They got rid of their sheep because they couldn't stop the dingos and wild dogs.They desalinate their own water, and they have their own wind turbine, and run the property on wind power, solar power and a back up generator.

Duncan and Soph go to boarding school in Perth, which is an 8 hour drive to Kalgoorlie, so they can catch a flight to Perth. Ben does school of the air with Megs, and his main teacher is based in Kalgoorlie. There are about 30 kids in his school of the air class. Bree does her fortnightly shop at either Esperance or Kalgoorlie, which are both 8 hours away.

I asked Megs about the time zone that we crossed today, because I thought it was weird that we didn't cross one up North.   She said that it is a strange thing, because it only applies to the highway.  It doesn't extend any further North than that.  We will cross the next time zone when we get to the South Australia border tomorrow. ( about 45 mins away). 

Day 48 - Perth to Norseman - by Danny

Well........  (Thankyou Caroline for that kick start)

We woke at the crack of dawn pretty happy to put the busy pace of Perth behind us, but I was a bit worried about trying to get out of the caravan park. Actually it was more a retirement village than a park. We were jammed in like sardines and there was no chance of navigating to the exit so we had to hitch up on a tight angle and skid the float around 90 degrees to go back out the way we came in. Caroline busied herself replacing the wheely bins I was knocking down ( of course it had to be bin morning) and tidying up gardens I had to drive over. 

I thought we were nearly clear with one sharp right turn to go but some resident had left a car too far out on a driveway and I couldn't swing as wide as I would have liked - consequently Big Tred suffered his second mishap as a rock from a garden wedged underneath us. It was superficial damage and once I pumped the airbags up to full capacity we were able to roll the big rock back out and straighten up the garden. We worked quickly because I have as worried the senior citizen who lived there would come out and fill the park up with uppercuts.

Safely back out on the busy freeway and I am now acutely aware that my left blinker hasn't worked since the rain when leaving home. It hasn't really been a problem until now but some locals aren't too happy as we duck and weave to get out of the city.

We then lay our ears back to get to Kalgoorlie and gave the kids a quick look at the super pit and all the machinery at the gold mine. Pretty amazing stuff. It takes a million tonnes of mined material to make 250 kg's of gold - or from every 7 full dump truck loads about 1 golf ball size of gold is collected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is still a bit of daylight so we hit the road for Norseman and stay just ahead of a big storm. We make camp at Norseman and tomorrow we look forward to staying with and old friend Meggan Carswell as guests of Mundrabilla Station - a million acre property where she lives and works.

We are aiming to be home some time Sunday because Donk runs out of rego. This has cut the trip short by a few days but Caroline and the kids are looking forward to getting home. I must admit that I'm not ready yet and could gladly turn north again. There is so much to see and it has been great to do it all together.

Night

Day 47 Perth by Adelaide

Today we went to Kings Park in Perth.

 

We saw a bird that flew on a ladies head while she was talking on the phone and she got scared and hit it away.

Now we are just chillaxing at Kings Park.

Everyone here is doing exercises or looking for a Pokemon on their phone. 

 

 

We drove to Freemantle. A man showed us the jail and he talked a lot. 

 

 

Then we went on a wheel thing.

 

And a slide thing.

 

Then we went back and now we are going to bed.

Day 46 - Geraldton to Perth - by Emily.🐴

Geraldton to Perth day 46 by Emily.😊

Happy birthday Nick Phegan and Tim Phegan🎈🎉

This morning we woke up and made some toast and a cup of tea. Then I emptied out the bins and I did the dishes all by my self. I made a cup of tea for dad and I.☕️I cleaned up all of the stuff for us all. Then mum and I got the washing. Then mum and I hung up the washing. Then I got ten dollars from mum. we just hoped in the car. We have just stopped at a petrol station now we are going again. Then we just drove past the beach. We have just stopped at a petrol staton. We got some stuff. We have just gone past the beach again.  

 

We saw a straight rainbow.

 

 

Just then went talked to Tim Robinson on dads phone. We watched him on dads phone. We saw our puppies. Now we are doing another walk. At the Walk there was lots of pinnacles. At the start my shoe broke so I had to go in one shoe. It was very very stoney. Then we got an empty 

bottle and put sand in it.

t we went to the shop and got some stuff. Now we are in the car again. Just then we have drove past the beach again. We have 118 more k's to go. Right now we are at Perth. We are at the caravan park and now we are going to get some tea. We are on the road.💜 now we are at a pub. We are waiting for tea. Our tea is ready. I just played on dads phone so did Adelaide, because I am going to give dad a squishy foot rub. Right now we are going to bed.

Good night

By Emily 🔷

Day 45. Denham to Geraldton by Bill

This morning we had to wake up at seven o' clock to go and see the Dolphins at Monkey Mia. For the first dolphin experience there was about 100 people so we didn't get to feed the Dolphins, but at the second one, there was only about 20 people so we got a go.

 

 Before we did the second one I picked up 25 pieces of rubbish so we got a activity pad each. After the second one we went back to the shop and I got a shirt and the girls got a teddy. Now we are driving to an aquarium. When we were driving We almost drove over a kangaroo. Before we went to the aquarium We went back to the  float to pick it up and we saw a car that said this on the wheel cover thing.

 

 Now we are driving again. We got to the aquarium  and we saw...four turtles and one had only three arms 

Another turtle kept swimming on his side because he had a belly ache and gas in one side of his belly.

- sting rays, a shovel nose shark - both have pectoral fins, but a Rays fins connect to its head, and a sharks fins connect to its body. ...so the shovel nose shark, is actually a ray. heaps of big fish and sharks and we got to see her feed them  clown fish and his anenome ( the white thing) - the clown fish doesn't get stung by his anenome because he has thicker skin than other fish, and he makes himself smell like it so the anenome doesn't recognise him. rock fish - they are very poisonous and the eat food really fast and they look ugly. Sea snakes and eels - eels have 2 mouths, and sea snakes are very venomous. star fish then we had lunch and I got a sticker. Now we are driving again. We saw an emu squating down in a puddle. We got to Billabong road house and I got this number plate Now we are going again. Now we are in the wheat belt. We got to Geraldton and dropped of the float and went to the HMAS Sydney war memorial and we saw the boat propellor.

It is made up of 745 seagulls because that many Australian navy men died on the boat. we saw a girl waiting for his husband but he was dead and we saw a monument.  We went to hogs breath cafe and there was a big bear. Now we are back at the float and going to bed. GOODNIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!